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December 21, 2001 // 10:49 p.m. // 10: Semisonic, All About Chemistry

10

Semisonic

All About Chemistry

Release date: March 13, 2001

The group that brought you the line, "You don't have to go home but you can't stay here" has returned with their third album and the follow up to their breakout album Feeling Strangely Fine.

For fans of the group, it's much of the same, but different. Whereas Feeling Strangely Fine was ecletic and written about a variety of subjects, All About Chemistry seems to be about only two things: sex and love.

Or maybe it's just me.

The albums first track and single "Chemistry" is loaded with sexual innuendo. "So for a while we conducted experiments/in an apartment by the river road/and we found out the two things we put together/had a bad tendancy to explode." I don't think I have to tell you that they're not speaking test tubes and beakers.

"Get A Grip" is the same way, except it is about "the loneliest kind of love."

If "Chemistry" and "Get A Grip" are loaded with innuendo, then "Bed" is the opposite. Singer Dan Wilson comes right out and says what he means. "Well it seems like you're aware of the effect you have on my head/If you feel like I'm asking you for too much/we can keep in touch and I'll find someone else to bed."

The album isn't all sex. "One True Love" features Carol King on backing vocals follows a search by an individual through a party for a partner. "She's Got My Number" is all about pining over that special someone and putting your life on hold just to hear them call.

"Who's Stopping You?" is about the chances you haven't taken, and why you should take them. "Life is so uncertain/Look at all the hurting that we've done/You said you had somebody better to become/Who's Stopping You?"

What Semisonic did this time around was mature and gain the confidence seen more here than their last album. They were gutsy enough to stick with the same pop driven rock sound in a world that has seen them lost amongst a boom of Warped Tour-like bands. I'm afraid when the sound of bands like Semisonic and Fastball become cool again, it'll be too late.

What real reviewers said: "Semisonic's newest release, All About Chemistry, hits all the right pop spots, but will likely appeal to a very niche group -- the same group that embraced the easy, witty pop of bands such as Crowded House or Ben Folds Five. In an era of R&B and rap-rock explosions, a quiet but perfectly charming band such as Semisonic could easily get lost in the noise. And what a shame that would be."

Jen Oliver, CDnow.com

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